It has to be said that Valentine Low's story about Benson – a female carp, named after a hole in her dorsal fin that resembled a cigarette burn, who was caught at least 60 times – is an extremely enjoyable read.

The quote from Tony Bridgefoot of the Bluebell Lakes complex is a classic. "We are all rocked by Benson's death. She was an iconic carp. We are all still trying to come to terms with her death. Money could not have bought Benson. She had that celebrity status. I can't stress how famous she was in the angling world."

And then turn to today's Daily Telegraph, which has a delightful story about dolphin sign language. A flop on to its side means "Let's go", a roll on to its back with tail fin waving means "Let's eat", and a rapid movement of its fins means "Let's bash out 300 words on this - there's nothing else going on".

The Sun tends to keep the silly season going all year round, but it has enjoyed a good run of "killer chipmunk" stories.

The story is reminiscent of a classic tale from October 2005 – it was an Indian summer that year, clearly – when the South London Press reported that squirrels were digging up crack cocaine hidden by drug dealers.

"There has never been a confirmed sighting of a great white off the Cornish coast. It's utter rubbish. We have never had a shark attack down here and we would urge people to take this with a pinch of salt. They are not the man-eating Jaws."

Clearly, animals are the essential ingredients of classic silly season tales.

Back in 1987 there was Blackie the Donkey, saved from being crushed at a Spanish fiesta and then brought to England by the Daily Star.

Then there were the Tamworth Two, a pair of piglets who broke out of a Wiltshire abattoir and spent a week on the run in January 1998 (OK, that wasn't really the summer).

The Daily Mail bought the pigs, named them Butch and Sundance and paid for them to live at the South of England Rare Breeds Centre near Ashford, Kent.

But sometimes it's possible to contrive a magnum opus of daftness that doesn't involve beasts.